The NFL Is Letting 2014 Draft Picks Choose Their Own Walk-Up Music, But It’s Nothing New

One of yesterday’s big and totally unimportant stories was the announcement that the 2014 NFL draft picks would be able to choose their own “walk-up” music for that ever-important moment when they take the stage and shake hands with Commissioner Roger Goodell. From Mashable:

NFL Network and ESPN will play natural sounds as picks take the stage, but in the background you should be able to hear the player-selected tracks (radio-versions only, of course) that Jadeveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel and others hand select. Thirty players the NFL invited to New York City for the draft will get to play DJ and pick their tracks. The 2014 NFL Draft’s first round is on Thursday.

Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, says the new move came about after soliciting feedback from players at previous drafts on how to make the the big day more fun.

“We’ve always had music for each player selected but it’s been more city-oriented,” McCarthy told Mashable in an email. “We ask the prospects we have in NYC each year for ways to improve their overall experience.”

The Internet has already exploded with HERE IS WHAT EACH DRAFT PICK WOULD PICK listicles, but it’s really not big news. The NFL’s been allowing this for years, they just didn’t make an announcement for it. Collected below are some of the best walk-up entrance themes for recent top picks, from Mark Sanchez’s constantly-there fetish to JaMarcus Russell’s statement of intent.

I don’t think these will be topped, assuming Johnny Football doesn’t rise up from underneath the stage like The Brood.

I can’t for next year when the draftees have to submit their song selection a week ahead of time to get approval. And then whomever is the black quarterback can get kicked out of the first round because his song that’s from the rap genre will see him as having gang ties. And if he goes in the first round today, I’m sure the media will be calling for Bridgewater to be retroactively selected in the 2nd round as a result of my hypothetical situation.